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Comment by grugagag | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what are the benefits from lucid dreaming. I read some claims that it’s possible we could gain access to some ‘hidden registry’ figuratively speaking by using methods such as lucid dreaming. However, I had a few lucid dreams in my life, all without any deliberate effort, they just happened and it’s nice to have them and all, but I don’t see myself getting out of my way to have lucid dreams. Does anyone get any substantial benefit from lucid dreaming out there?

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There is a significant recreational benefit. Flying feels amazing, and while I don't lucid dream anymore due to THC supplements for sleeping, I remember being fascinated and endlessly entertained by how _real_ it felt. I also remember quickly waking up upon the exciting realization that I'm dreaming. Rubbing hands together to stabilize the dream as you feel it slipping is a strategy I remember using. Or skipping inadvertently back into that gullible state where you take the most outlandish stuff at face value and outright forget that you're dreaming.

Pretty amazing when is works, though

But if dreaming serves a purpose, like processing experiences, emotions, 'defragmenting' the mind, couldn't regular lucid dreaming disrupt this?

In Robert Waggoner's book, Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self, the author, who was a very skilled lucid dreamer from childhood, describes how he had a moment of insight after waking from a lucid dream. He had been thinking of himself as the controller of his dreams, and treated them mostly as entertainment. But he realized that for everything he "decided" in his lucid dream, there was far more content that arrived, unplanned--scenery, characters, events, and so on.

This made him curious about using awareness within the dream not just for entertainment, but to conduct experiments and tests, to research what was and wasn't possible, what dream characters and dream consciousness knew or didn't know, all from within the dreams themselves. He's spent decades doing that, and comparing notes with other skilled lucid dreamers.

It's an incredibly fascinating book, a sort of natural history of the dream world by a seasoned traveler within it.

Also has a bunch of useful tips on cultivating lucid dreaming, which I remember working pretty well a few times when I had been disciplined enough to practice them.

As other commenters have pointed out, the question itself might be pointless. The article makes the same mistake, trying to frame lucid dreaming around some supposed benefits it provides. But this craving for benefits is just a product of the ego. There’s a deeper layer to it—simply experiencing reality is already profound enough on its own. And being more aware of this beautiful reality during your lifetime, instead of literally being asleep at the wheel, is pretty amazing.

I do experience lucid dreaming ocasionally without any effort of my own and without paying for an application either. I’m trying to understand whether doing more of it benefits me in any way beyond the ocassional episodes that come naturally. Why is this pointless to you?

It's fun and interesting. Those are already pretty great benefits for something free and zero calorie, that takes up zero extra hours in the day.

It is incredibly entertaining. It is the closest thing to full dive VR we can get right now and I doubt we would ever get the "realness" as close as lucid dreaming without some physical hijacking in the brain.

The world is your oyster when you are dreaming and in control. That alone is enough of a draw for many people.

MXE/k holing is slightly closer to feeling like reality, and much higher resolution if you get good at controlling it.

https://qualiacomputing.com/2019/01/06/free-wheeling-halluci...

I actually dislike lucid dreaming; it's not as restful and it's often difficult to return to restful sleep once you're aware.

I enjoy it a lot, but this is definitely a downside people should be aware of if they'd like to lucid dream. It's very easy to wake up immediately once you realize you're lucid, or take forever to slip out of lucidity.

My first thought when I saw this study is that now you can seek out lucidity on nights that you know you can afford disrupted sleep.

I first sought out lucid dreaming because it helped with my sleep paralysis. It's still difficult to keep calm, but if I do manage it during an episode, it can become a much less unpleasant experience. I also haven't had nightmares in a long time as a side effect.

When it happens nearly every time you go to sleep, it gets rather tiresome (I’ll show myself out)

Seriously though, I wish I could turn it off. Almost every single night. No thanks.

Edit: When it gets to be that common, it really starts to mess with your memory of things.

> I wonder what are the benefits from lucid dreaming.

Becoming lucid whilst asleep is important within Buddhism.

To my knowledge the Tibetans have developed this further than other schools (non Vajrayana) with a big emphasis on 'dream yoga' [0]. The idea within the religion being that if on your death bead you have learned to become lucid in dream then as you are dying you can fix your mind on higher realms and achieve a more desirable rebirth.

It would seem compatible with Theravada outlooks at least in principle as mentioned in Mahasi Sayadaw's Manual of Insight [1]. As well as supported by discourses such as SN 55.54 Gilāna Sutta [2].

For a slightly more secular approach (but still also from a Buddhist practitioner) you can check out Dreaming Yourself Awake [3].

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62191734-the-tibetan-yog...

[1] > "Sleep is a prolonged period of the “life-continuum” or “functional” consciousness. This is the same kind of consciousness that arises during the first and last moments of our lives."

[2] https://suttacentral.net/sn55.54/en/sujato?lang=en

[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13151218-dreaming-yourse...

I would think the value of lucid dreams comes from having a better understanding of your unconscious self. Aligning the conscious decisions with the unconscious desires could lead to a more satisfactory life.

I believe feeling fulfilled on one's death bed is a positive experience and feeling unfilled could be hellish.

When I was little I had a reoccurring nightmare, but one night something seemed familiar and jarred me into lucidity. I made a conscious decision to go left instead of right and it ended uneventfully, never to return. A couple times since being somewhat lucid helped end a nightmare, though I had practiced a little using the 'Waking Life' technique of testing light switches

My mind eventually started becoming half lucid during nightmares by itself. Any time I have a nightmare where something is about to hurt me, a slight lucidity kicks in and whatever threat gets nullified. Most clear example was Jurassic Park-like and I was about to be attacked by a raptor when walking into a room. My mind anticipated what it was about to do and turned the threat into a cute dog.

Been hoping I can turn that into full lucidity at some point, but that type of nightmare where it happens is rare.

That's how lucidity started for me. I was having recurrent nightmares, and gradually built up my confidence at repelling the threat with telekinesis and fire. Those "skills" evolved into having lucid dreams about once a month, for a while.

I remember in one dream, it started off on a nice beach, when awareness hit me. I looked around and marvelled at how real it all looked. I was near a wooden railing and touched it, wondering how could I ever tell the difference between a dream and reality, since it all looked and felt so solid and vibrant. Then I noticed a truck parked nearby, levitated it with my mind, and hurled it hundreds of meters down the beach.

The frequency of lucidity subsided after a while. I don't know why my brain only switched on lucid dreaming for just one phase of my life. I did have another lucid dream a week ago, the first in about four years. I was flying over a landscape and entered a surreal city, and once again marvelled at how real everything all looked.

I'm with a couple of the other commenters in this thread. It's nice to have experienced lucid dreaming at some point, and it's fun when it happens again. However, it's also kind of pointless. A healthy attitude is to appreciate restful sleep instead of craving for some useless thrill.

For me: I used to be a tiny bit good at lucid dreaming, just for fun. Now this skill has developed back, but it's still enough to be able to wake up from annoying dreams.

Those include: being with persons you no longer want to be with, writing exams at schools and failing terribly, repeating nonsense calculation/problem solving dreams...

I found it a great way to relax when life was hectic. Back when I was sober most days, I lucid dreamed a lot (~80% of nights) and I could remember the dreams well. I have/had numerous calm spaces in which I spent time and felt safe. Given I have PTSD, it was very helpful. It let me practice feeling safe.

Supposedly it is easy to go from lucid dreaming to astral travel.

unless its one and the same

I don't know. It just feels nice to fly, for once.

Given enough time, [sleepers] will optimise the fun out of a [bedtime].

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